"I can and I will~", she answered with a soft, almost playfully protective smile, certain that even though her friend had been injured, she'd be back to 100% in no time. She pet her hair softly as they walked around and she tried to lead Locke for the next stage of her training. She could have taken her back to the ship but for better or worse Linnea still figured she would need her help for the next part of her training. When the girl complained about the Captain's poor timing Linnea commented with a cute frown, almost pouting at her friend's resistance, "Sheesh Locke, Its a lot closer than the ship..."

She motioned for Locke to lay down comfortably on the soft grass once they reached the top of the hill, and Linnea followed suit, grabbing her bow, making an Ice arrow, and taking aim. Locke eventually pointed out to a tree near their ship, and Linnea smirked, as if accepting a challenge, "That will do nicely..."

Locke had now become her spotter, and like any good sniper, Linnea promptly targeted the girl's mark as if they were an enemy. First off, she estimated the distance... It was easily over one kilometer, roughly a mile away. Scanning her surroundings, she looked for tall leaves and vegetation in between here and there, calculating wind shifts on the fly. But that wasn't even all she had to calculate: At such a distance, every detail, no matter how small, would play a crucial part. Drag, firing angle, arrow spin, gravity, even the rotation of the earth came into play... Accounting for all of these forces was no small task, but it was the difference between hitting and missing.

And with that, Linnea took a deep breath, steadied her aim, and let her arrow fly true, shifting her bow upwards, employing flight archery to ensure her arrow managed to take full advantage of the increased height. It should allow her to reach much further than it normally might... In the end, and even from this far away, Linnea was able to see how her arrow barely hit her target, but she'd turn to Locke to see how good or how bad she actually was, since she had the binoculars:

Though it still hurt, Locke's injury started to hurt less with the pressure of her lying down on it, she was thankful for that and Linnea's positioning reminded Locke that she knew what she was doing... The captains face had changed to a somewhat familiar cold stare as the blacksmith could almost literally see everything that was going on in Linnea's head, her blue eyes were moving frantically as she clearly calculated the shot...

Locke looked back through the binoculars as she heard the unmistakable sound of the bow firing, though it was quiet, at this close it was easily heard. A rouge wind had caught the frozen arrow and sent it just that much off course, but it still managed to hit the target barely as the arrow, ironically enough, landed in the branches, reflecting light into the girl's direction."Well, your on target... but the foe remains uninjured captain!"Locke passes the binocular to her sniper ally and says "Look in the branches, the arrow landed perfectly in them!"

Locke couldn't help but laugh, but that also hurt her as she coughs a bit "Remind me not to do that again...."

Locke seemed way better off from the moment they laid down on the grass and teamed up to help Linnea improve her sniping skills. Sharpshooting required a saint-like patience to pull off, but when one was wounded like the greenette was, the opportunity to lay down and sit still for a long period of time no doubt must have felt like a rather pleasant change. The girl seemed to know what to do with those binoculars and where to keep them pointed towards which only made it all that much easier. Her shot, however, could have gone a lot better...

Lin could tell she hadn't hit her mark as perfectly as she had grown used to from all this years being a prodigy at marksmanship, but then again, such a range was a challenge even for her, and she knew that. But then Locke spoke, and confirmed her suspicions. She clicked her tongue in a finely supressed display of frustration, instead forming another arrow and taking aim... At this distance, the wind was her greatest challenge. Everything else she could calculate near flawlessly, but the Grand Line's unpredictable weather extended to minute shifts in wind speed and direction; while seemingly insignificant at her usual range, they were more than relevant when it came to hitting a target over a mile away.

"Indeed...", she confirmed, her keen eyesight being more than enough to confirm the girl's statement once she focused hard enough, "This might be even harder than I thought... Well, I won't give up that easily."

With this, Linnea took aim again. This time, she did a lot more than just aim. Her eyes were almost completely focused on the leaves and vegetation between here and there, trying to discern even the slightest pattern in the wind. There had to be some order to all this randomness, no matter how slight, right? Or so she thought... As Linnea let loose a second arrow, she timed the shot for the split second when the wind died down before a change in direction, somewhat managing to predict what direction it would take. It wasn't perfect, but she was getting there, and as the wind slowly blew her ice arrow right on course, she grinned.

Yet though this was a better shot than the last one, it was still not perfect, and Locke would confirm it before long...

"Alright let's see..."Locke watched her captain get more annoyed at her shot, clicking her tongue as she confirmed with the blacksmith about the shot.The sharpened eyes of Linnea further focused as she once again formed an ice arrow, and aimed once more... A familiar sensation washed over Locke as Linnea seamed even more determined to shoot the old tree that was designated as her target.

Once again the wheels turned and Locke couldn't help but feel the wind change, at that exact millisecond Linnea let loose her ice bolt that soared through the air like before..."This time it landed at the roots... But at least the air didn't mess you up this time!" Locke had said what she thought she would be able to say to keep Linnea's spirits up but a quick drop of water on her nose showed that a storm was slowly brewing...

Another failure... This time Linnea was so obcessed with the wind she failed to properly account for the many other factors that would and actually interfered with her shot. Yet she learned more with every attempt, so much that she was slowly getting used to calculating which force threw her shot off course. This time it was the draw strength and angle. Though close, the power and firing angle wasn't enough to nail that perfect hit she was looking to score. She didn't even get as frustrated this time: She learned more from her failures than her successes after all... Sniping was a game of patience and patience was her game. The more accustomed she grew, the colder and more calculating she got.

Just like any other technique, Linnea knew that if she couldn't pull off a flawless execution in a controlled, experimental setting, she would never be able to do the same during live combat, with bullets raining all over the place.

"You're right... I managed to predict the wind but sacrificed my aim to do it.", Assessed Linnea, narrowing her eyes to take a better look at her shot. The targeted tree was still in perfect condition; even if she wouldn't be able to knock it down with weak arrows like these and especially not at this range, Linnea expected to do a bit more than just nick it.

This time, she had hit the roots just like Locke promptly confirmed, and when Linnea finally drew her bow again, she tried to account for her previous mistakes. She was getting better at predicting these minute wind shifts and how they would affect her shot, but now it was the time to achieve that same feat without giving up the uncanny aim that she was famous for. Linnea tugged on the bow string once more with her icy finger, producing yet another arrow and firing it, improving the angle and draw strength to better match the intended distance...

As the arrow whizzed through the air, even she would be able to confirm that she was gradually growing more accurate with each shot. It was now up to her spotter to get a better look through those binoculars, "How's that...?", asked an expectant Linnea

Locke was amazed at the skill and patience Linnea had shown, the greenette was sure that she would have taken a break or tried something else at this point. "I'd never be able to be that patient..." Locke had said, though not trying to remove her friends focus "I guess that's why I use fans instead of a bow, huh?"

For the third time today Linnea was aiming her bow, steadily and slowly as she drew a breath to keep her bow from moving as much... After what seamed like a few minutes, she had let loose the ice arrow and it soared through the air...."It's in! It's on target!" said Locke as she peered through the binoculars, she moved her hand to pat Linnea on her back before handing the pair of magnifiers to her.

The old, gnarled tree had finally been hit in the area that she was aiming for, the ice arrow clearly stuck out of the bark as it would soon slowly melt to naught but water. "How about you try to hit around you arrow?" the blacksmith had challenged Linnea to a new, yet still possible task... Would she take the risk?

She nodded appreciatingly, blushing softly at her friend's praise, even scratching her head humbly as she spoke, "Yeah, you might be right... I was much too patient when it came to using melee weapons...", she confessed her lack of skill when she was a child, no doubt one of the reasons why she was so shy. Or maybe she was unskilled with front like combat because she was too meek? Quite honestly, she had given up trying to figure that one out, and just focused on doing what she was best at.

Being a sniper was all about patience. If she werent' patient she couldn't be nearly as good as she is now. To be a good sniper, one had to not only have the patience to train endlessly with their chosen weapon, to master every factor relating to that weapon (such as firing speed, projectile weight, trajectory spread), but also get used to understanding how the forces behind that weapon would interact with the envoiromental ones, such as wind, firing angle, and distance. And even then that wasn't enough. Even after finding the patience to master all of that, they still had to be patient with each shot, take their time aiming. The longer a sniper could pay attention as they aimed each specific shot, the more successful they would be: "Winning a battle between snipers is more than just skill. More often than not the most patient sniper takes home the victory, when the frustrated, impatient one tries to relocate or fire pot shots while the other just waits and takes advantage of all those failures."

She grabbed the binoculars and smiled gleefully at her success. Finally! She had shot successfuly from way beyond the effective range of her bow, and still nailed it like it was an apple on top of some snivelling Marine's head. This is it, this was the aim she was thinking about. Grinning confidently, she handed Locke back the bionoculars, and eagerly took her up on her challenge, "I'll be damned if I cant pull that off."

Taking a deep breath, Linnea closed her eyes for a brief second... She thought back to each and every one of her crewmates, and their shared resolve to travel around the around the world, like the snake biting its own tail. The choice of emblem for her jolly roger had been almost instinctive and thus she kept it firmly in her mind every day. More than the unity of the world she wanted to travel around, it represented the unity between them all... Locke's challenged reminded her of just that, and how she had to grow even stronger to protect both her friends and their collective ambition. When she opened her eyes, she had already drawn an arrow, keeping the bow in nearly the exact same position as the last shot. She had already memorized how she needed to aim to hit that target at that exact distance, and all that was left was accounting for the wind, the only wild card... And the best way to do that, was to shoot quick, as fast as she could, ensuring a similar outcome for each arrow.

Linnea fired five arrows in quick succession, all aimed around the first clean hit, forming a basic imitation of their jolly roger. It was now up to Locke, to see whether or not she'd hit.

"Hey, I'm glad we'll have ranged support. If we all were close range fighters, gunmen would be our worst enemy..."Locke reassured her captain, truly great-full for her captains skills. Apparently she dug up some old, painful memories..."I'll keep that in mind. Drive the enemy crazy, got it!" the greenette smiled as she tried to lighten the mood, of course when she mentioned the target getting hit Linnea was happy, as one would expect.

Linnea agreed to the challenge as she aimed once more, but she sharpened her senses as she waited for the perfect moment to shoot! Five *THWIP*'s later and the blond had managed to hit the target in a circle, and Locke couldn't help but not think of her crew in that formation... like a cartwheeling snake...

"Good job Linnea! All of them hit the target!" Locke, though happy, couldn't help but ache. Maybe it's time to get me patched up..."

Locke's words made more sense than she knew... When she made her crew, that was the exact notion that spurred the Uroboros Captain forward. To be all of their guardian angels rolled into one. Already a natural at long range sniping, Linnea was spurred to keep boosting her ranger further... And further... and even further. The furthest she was able to shoot the better she would be at protecting her loved ones, after all, she wanted each and every one of them to explore to their heart's content, just like she herself did:

"That's what I'm here for.", Linnea nodded with a smile, "No matter where you are, no matter how far, I'll always be close enough to protect you."

She laughed softly at the girl's interpretation of her words, after all, she had the right idea. Indeed, unnerving your opponent is a solid and always effective strategy. From then on its all about exploiting the enemy's destabilized state of mind. She then grinned widely as Locke confirmed what her instincts already knew, visibly proud of herself. Of course, this grin faded as Locke commented on her wounds once more, and Linnea quickly undid her Ice transformation and stashed away her bow, pushing a stray lock of silvery platinum hair away from her eyes.

"We should... Sorry for pushing you like this. At least you'll be stronger once those wounds are properly healed.", Linnea caressed Locke's green hair sweetly as she got up, offering a hand to help her stand up. However, Instead of simply helping her walk, she would crouch next to the girl, offering her back for her to ride, "As compensation for being my spotter... I'll give you a ride back to the ship."

And with this, Linnea would carry her young blacksmith. She wasn't the strongest of amazons, but she was strong enough to carry Locke back to the ship. The girl would have to carry her bow for her, however...

"That's what I'm here for. No matter where you are, no matter how far, I'll always be close enough to protect you." Linnea words made Locke blush as she see's the smile of her captain, but she replies with "And hopefully I'll be able to protect you when it's needed."

Locke heard Linnea laugh and remark that the greenette's "driving the enemy crazy" remark was a close to home statement, she couldn't help but smile as well, but the pain started to act up again.

"That's alright Linnea, It was my idea..." Locke struggled to get up, even with Linnea's help... Then the captain did something she didn't expect though. "I-I didn't expect you to do that, but alright..." Locke, with some trouble, was able to get situated as Linnea carried her down to the ship. Though Locke was being held onto, she held onto the weapon of her friend... being careful not to drop the valuable piece of equipment.

They soon got to the ship, and Mae had to check her wounds... again. And after a quick talking-to from the small, but intimidating at times, doctor the greenette's wounds were taken care of.{End}219 words this post3187 words in total